TigerHawk

TigerHawk (ti*ger*hawk): n. 1. The title of this blog and the nom de plume of its founding blogger; 2. A deep bow to the Princeton Tigers and the Iowa Hawkeyes; 3. The nickname for Iowa's Hawkeye logo. Posts include thoughts of the day on international affairs, politics, things that strike us as hilarious and personal observations. The opinions we express are our own, and not those of each other, our employers, our relatives, our dead ancestors, or unrelated people of similar ethnicity.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Conservatives finally learn to fight back

By TigerHawk at 2/23/2011 06:35:00 AM

I had a nice discussion last night about the transfer of the organizational and confrontational tactics of the left to the right (see my post from last year on the subject). Last night my best example was the startling story that the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing has started to investigate more than 300 email complaints against those doctors who were giving out fraudulent "notes" that purported to excuse teachers from working so that they could demonstrate against Republicans. Conservatives never used to be that smart. They have learned, in part because they have adopted the teachings of Saul Alinsky who -- and this part is hilarious -- they only heard of in the first place because the Democrats nominated a community organizer to run as their candidate for president.

Today we get another example of a deft procedural counter-punch from Republicans, albeit from inside the parliamentary system:

Sometimes politics makes you laugh out loud. Hot Air has a roundup of the latest from Wisconsin, of which the greatest is this: the Republicans have adopted a rule that Senators have to collect their paychecks in person, on the Senate floor. Hilarious! Can the Democratic Party survive the shame of this debacle? I suppose so, but no amount of ridicule is too much.

Whatever you might think, this whole confrontation in Madison is nothing if not amusing.

10 Comments:

You know, the liberals hate it when we turn their tactics against them.

Thought it might be fun to play with left-wing bolier plate rhetoric and buzz words to create a bit of a different message:"Speak truth to power! The voters of Wisconsin sent a message in November to fat cat union bosses. The days of greed are over. No longer will you gouge the public coffers with your excess. No longer will your members be forced to send millions to help elect your political puppets. Choice and freedom are here at last. Power to the people!"

Its interesting, auspicious, and exciting; maybe not amusing to me, but I could see it being so.

But the key is auspicious. This is a better "theater of action" than I could have imagined for what is the only issue other than national security that really concerns me, education. That the recession and debt would be the catalyst for what I hope is the virtual end of public education unions and public school monopolization of education finances (vouchers, charter schools becoming typical alternatives in every community in the U.S.) is a wonderful event.

I'm still aghast that the Republican Party has not made the above reforms its central campaign issue since it's so appealing to independents as well as its base and is so devastating to the the Democratic Party's ability to win elections. It's incompetence on a mind-boggling scale.

One argument the left is making with some effect is really completely specious, and that's the class warfare argument. These public employees are millionaires, every one of them.

Think about it: a $100,000 annual pension is the equal of income on a $2,000,000 savings pile (at 5%, an agressive level of return). To save $2 million, a private economy worker really has to earn at least $4 million, with the excess being used to pay income taxes, and the money has to be above and beyond living costs. These public employees are millionaires, every last one of them, and that's before considering the value of their lifetime medical benefits.

"Fairness" dictates they should pay for our retirement and health care, not the reverse.

Any group of legislators which holds itself hostage at a place called the "Tilted Kilt" and then exhibits outrage and tears of frustration when the other side tries to vote without them is just asking for ridicule.

It isn't enough to stop the automatic deposit on the paychecks for the "fleebaggers." Turns out they are getting funds from other sources.

Failed Dem presidential candidate Howard Dean is running a slush fund to bribe those “fleebaggers” to stay away and not vote. This is bribery, folks, and it’s a FELONY. Both Dean and the fleebaggers belong in prison for this. The sooner they are indicted, the better!